Re: Bakker says

>John Bois wrote:
>
>> I think Bakker is correct in looking for a biological contributor in
order
>> to explain the _pattern_ of extinction, not extinction _per se_.
>> But diseases don't do it for me. First, diseases have never been
known to
>> wipe out whole taxa. For starters bacteria and virus are usually
>> species-specific, secondly diseases even within a single species
don't
>> usually knock out the entire species.
>
>Most bacteria and viruses are species-specific, but not all. Look at
the
>pathogen called Rinderpest -- spread from domestic cattle to wild
African
>antelope, and wiped them out by the thousands, across several different
>species. Look at rabies, which can infect almost any mammal species
known. A
>pathogen as lethal and cross-contagious as rabies that was transmitted
by air
>could do a heckuva job on a fauna. And some ecosystems don't need to
lose all
>that many species before they become unstable.
>
>Also, I've heard some reports recently of Central American frogs --
several
>species, in several genera -- getting hammered by a fungal skin
disease.
>Fungi and other external pathogens don't always have the same
compatibility
>problem between species that internal pathogens do.
>
>-- Jon W.
>
>
>Has anyone ever thought to take blood (DNA, or whatever) from some
fossils and try to see if they contain some form of virus?
Caleb Lewis
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com